My JD 200 lc starter was acting up so I pulled it off and there was a lot of oil on the starter, when we tore it down the starter had oil inside of it, my question is should there be oil in the bell housing or do I have a leaking rear main seal.
Machine serial #? Is it engine or hydraulic oil?
There should be no oil in the flywheel housing. Is the oil level in your pump drive gearbox low? Overfull? Engine oil level dropping? Like Vetech said, serial number?
FF0200x501452 serial number From the color it appears to be engine oil
Has the paint started to turn dark or even brown in color. As long as you have to do the rear main seal on the engine, you might as well do the front seal on the pump.
I figured it was the rear main seal, sad part we just rebuilt the motor, might have 75 hrs on it, I asked the question because there was a gasket between the starter and the bell housing.
Those gaskets are used in wet housing applications, also with a wet starter motor (sealed nose,/armature). Personally, I don't even use the gaskets when putting a starter on the wet housing engines. They always get oil soaked and fail after awhile and your starter mounting bolts end up being loose.
Pull the dipstick on the pump drive to be sure it is not that. Easy enough to check.
According to the serial number of your machine it originally had and still shows a gasket for the starter mounting. Why? That's the $1000 question. That flywheel housing is a dry housing so it really does not need it unless it is a clearance issue for the nose of the starter?? Nothing in the literature about it. Does your pump drive have 90W oil in it or does it have engine oil in it? Your machine's vintage shows 90W oil in the gearbox according to the operator's manual, but I know all the newer machines (which use the identical gearbox) have engine oil in them. Either way did you check the level? It could be the source of the oil.
I am getting the starter back today and will check the pump drive oil when I get back to the machine, Thanks for the help!